Images and Description
LEAD PEWTER VOTIVE MIRROR
Description
This particular mirror fits in the palm of one’s hand. It has a 1.5 inch stem with two semi-circular handles. The more refined side will be referenced as the mirror’s “front” from here on out. It contains a round head with a high relief smaller circular decal in the center, which is in the form of a circle with a cross or “x” decoration within it. The mirror contains a hole in the center of the head, which is present on both sides. It is flat with no decoration on the stem, perhaps telling us that there was another part attached to this side. The rougher side has no visible decorative detail, and is not as flat as the front, so from this we can conclude it was most likely the “back” of the mirror. The back contains an undulating decoration of half circles around the central circular decoration, but it is overall less ornate than the front.
Similar to that of our comparanda 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, this mirror remains in decent condition, with slight damage and degradation on the decoration, which is also occasionally clogged with gunk that has been collected through time. It is made of dark brown/black lead with spots of grey, and unlike other examples of votive mirrors, it contains no inscription, unlike what we've seen on comparanda 6, which bears the inscrption “SERVASEROTIVOC” or “Servas Eroti voc(as)” translating to “You call the maid servants of Eros”, and 7. containing the inscription “Successfully (?)”. While the lead frame is still intact, there is no visible evidence of the reflective glass mirror that would have accompanied the object, as is denoted in 1, and 8. However, in similar cases, traces of glass shards have been found within the chemical compounds of the lead frame as seen in 8. Our mirror’s backing remains unfinished, which suggests that there was a single point of display and that the mirror was mounted on something. Without the physical visibility of the mirror’s backside, this mirror and it’s comparanda ultimately suggest that these objects were not necessarily meant to be three-dimensionally viewed from all sides, but rather viewed from one single side.
Date
Suggested date by the Cambridge antique dealer is from the 4th to the 5th Century AD. We found similar objects 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 which date from as early as 40 A.D. to 409 A.D. From this, we conclude that the suggested date is correct based on various mirror comparanda that we found.
Measurements
Weight: 21.38 Grams
Length: 4.295 cm (1.6909449 in.)
Height: 8.595 cm (3.3838583 in.)
Width: 0.744 cm (0.29291339 in.)
Provenance
Said to have been found by a detectorist in Eastern Europe; Closed coin shop in Cambridge, England; Boris Blick, University of Akron (?-2005); Sarah Blick, Kenyon College (2005–2015) 2015.163.A
